For many years architects and developers have proposed and promoted expensive construction projects based on optimistic self-serving estimates as to the resulting economic regional impact. Similar economic arguments have been advanced by the owners of baseball and football teams in large cities to support demands for new stadiums, but economic experts have shown that sports teams and new stadiums do not in fact provide viable economic engines for a major city. Louisiana""s Superdome happens to be one exception to that general rule.
When a multi-use domed stadium is combined with a nearby top-tier convention center, the economic impact can be substantial as proved in cities, such as Atlanta, St. Louis and Indianapolis, because visitors or tourists attracted from outside the region. That economic argument for a domed stadium may have credibility but was rejected in Chicago and in other major cities, such as Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Cincinnati, that decided to spend several hundred million dollars for construction of open-air roofless football stadiums that will be used only 10 to 15 days per year and that provide little, if any, economic impact. In a few cities, such as San Francisco and Phoenix, billion dollar sports/business complexes have been proposed as potential economic engines, but, so far, the response of a skeptical public has been unfavorable.
In Pittsburgh, after the votes turned down taxpayer funding for new baseball and football stadiums, private sources were able to raise $817 million for a new 300,000-square foot convention center and separate open-top football and baseball stadiums. However, because of the failure to provide a domed roof for the football stadium, the city may never host a Superbowl or a major political convention.
The simple fact is that developers have heretofore failed to demonstrate or convince political leaders that estimated potential economic advantages justify the inordinate costs and limited value of mega construction projects, such as billion-dollar shopping malls or sports-oriented building complexes.
Domed football stadiums can be constructed at modest or relatively low cost. The less expensive air domes, such as the Silverdome, are problematic and now considered obsolete. Cable-supported domes, such as the 1989 Tropicana Dome, near Tampa, are far superior but only two have been built in this country. The total construction costs for Atlanta""s cable dome, the Georgia Dome, were reported to be about $160 million. However, fabric domes of this type are not favored by team owners and none have been seriously considered here for the last 10 years. The owners have instead promoted expensive retractable dome stadiums. The new baseball stadiums in Seattle and Milwaukee with rigid retractable roofs cost more than $500 million but have little economic impact.
For many years, in the field of sports stadiums, there has been a need for an attractive economical alternative to the retractable stadium roof, but this need was not met prior to the adjustable convertible dome of the present invention.
In the architectural field, buildings of pyramidal shape have been known for decades. Heretofore, in the field of sports arenas, the potential advantages of such a shape were not recognized. Prior to the present invention, the many advantages of a huge pyramid in a mega sports-building complex were not known or understood.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a cost-effective sports-building complex with a magnificent pyramid that can serve as a superb landmark or focal point for a major city and also to provide an effective economic engine that is capable of creating tremendous economic growth.
Those objectives can be achieved in the embodiment of the invention illustrated schematically in FIG. 5 and in more detail in FIGS. 1 to 3, which could pay for itself within a few years because of the economic advantages.
In the practice of the invention, a mega stadium-convention center complex is provided comprising a huge pyramid with a height of 600 to 800 feet or more having a generally rectangular base with a substantial width, such as 800 to 1200 feet, covering 15 to 25 acres or more. The magnificent pyramid contains an elevated football or baseball stadium with a playing field located from 150 to 200 feet or more above ground level and has many floors below the playing field that provide several million or perhaps up to 5 million square feet of useful or leasable floor space.
The huge pyramid provides a mega complex large enough to accommodate a variety of business, educational, recreational and entertainment activities (e.g., theaters, restaurants, offices, apartments, swimming pools, retail stores and the like). One or more lower floors of the complex near or below ground level can be used as a parking garage with more than one million square feet of parking space.
The present invention provides a unique mega sports-building complex of the type illustrated in FIG. 5, for example, which can be a magnificent functional structure of tremendous potential that could have a major, major economic impact on a large metropolitan area.
Recent events seem to confirm such an optimistic prediction. A Washington Post article published in The Plain Dealer on Jul. 21, 2002, describes a $2 billion complex currently proposed for Syracuse, N.Y., by the Pyramid Group that combines a huge shopping center with a 15,000-seat amphitheater, an aquarium, and a theater-tourist hotel center. An excerpt from that article reads as follows:
xe2x80x9cAt more than 4 million square feet, DestiNY would exceed Minnesota""s Mall of America. A Pyramid-sponsored consultant""s report claims it will attract 35 million annual visitors, including 12 million from outside New York and 2 million international tourists. More than $12.5 billion in annual economic activity, including as many as 122,000 jobs at average wage of $31,000, is projected.
Mayor Matt Driscoll says the city double-checked the developer""s figures, finding them credible.xe2x80x9d
The pyramid-shaped roof above the stadium and the playing field is preferably provided with narrow parallel retractable panels, as in FIG. 5, for example, so that portions of the roof can be opened to facilitate air circulation and light transmission to the playing field during sports events.
The retractable panels are an important feature of a unique adjustable convertible roof structure of general utility that constitutes an independent or distinct invention applicable to ordinary ground-level stadiums or to retrofits of existing baseball or football stadiums. The convertible roof structure, as illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9, for example, unlike that of a $500-million retractable roof stadium, is relatively inexpensive to build and has other major advantages over the conventional rigid retractable roof which is normally fully open or fully closed during a scheduled sporting event, such as a football game.
For example, a common practice (to offset the obvious disadvantages of a retractable roof) is to heat or cool the interior of a retractable-roof stadium for 8 hours or more before a scheduled game while the roof is fully closed and then to open the roof and keep it open during the game. This strategy would be much more effective with the convertible roof structure of the present invention because the individual retractable panels can be adjusted in accordance with the outside weather conditions to optimize the comfort level for the spectators. This is particularly true in an insulating-type roof system of the type shown in FIG. 8 which helps to reduce heat transfer and the rate of temperature change during the sports contest.
The adjustable convertible roof system of this invention is particularly advantageous on very warm summer days and chilly winter days where air conditioning or heating is not urgently needed and can be omitted when the narrow roof panels (p) are carefully adjusted to improve spectator comfort. This option is not available or possible with conventional retractable roofs, such as the stadium roof in Seattle.
One of the more important objects of the present invention is to provide a cost-effective sports-oriented mega building complex with remarkable economic advantages that can pay for itself in a short period of time.
Another object is to provide an adjustable convertible stadium roof structure that improves spectator comfort in a variety of adverse weather conditions and that can be constructed at relatively low cost.
Other objects, uses and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the drawings and the brief description which follows.